Reflex: 2 enthusiasts establish Czech gravediggers' guild

Prague, July 29 (CTK) - Two men, Jaroslav Sejvl and David Stejskal, have established the first gravediggers' professional guild in the Czech Republic and they plan to open a school for gravediggers to restore the past credit of this profession, reports the weekly Reflex out yesterday.

It writes that Sejvl worked with the Prague police at the homicide department and after he left the police he became a university teacher of criminology. However, he felt that he needed some meaningful manual work that would enable him to forget daily routine.

This is why he passed a gravedigger's exam last year. On this occasion he met another enthusiast, his examiner Stejskal who works as a gravedigger in Ricany near Prague. He is proud of his profession that has become his hobby, Reflex writes.

Both men decided to establish the gravediggers' guild, it adds.

Stejskal explains that the gravediggers' guild, which is a member of the Czech Chamber of Commerce, is "an apolitical association of gravediggers, tomb builders, cemetery administrators and gardeners and other workers in the branch who are interested in increasing their qualification."

The guild is to develop the profession and set up standards for gravediggers. Its members cooperate and exchange information about funeral services.

"The association committee can also offer honorary membership to significant personalities," Reflex quotes the guild statutes.

Moreover, Sejvl and Stejskal have written a textbook for gravediggers in cooperation with the Institute of Forensic Medicine, sanitary inspectors and other experts, Reflex writes.

"The textbook has been the first of this kind in the Czech Lands since 1783 when Emperor Joseph II ordered to move graveyards behind town walls," Stejskal told Reflex.

In cooperation with the Education Ministry, the guild also plans to open a three-year study line for "cemetery administrators" and a 200-hour retraining course for this profession, Reflex says.

It adds that a gravedigger's exam costs from 1500 to 4000 crowns in the Czech Republic. But hardly any gravedigger earns more than 12,000 crowns a month, while the national average is some 22,700 crowns.

One professional gravedigger looks after at least four cemeteries of about 0.5 hectare with some 4000 burial units each, Stejskal told Reflex.

In the past gravediggers were civil servants who enjoyed a high respect, while nowadays their status is low and the public regards gravediggers as losers and drunkards, said Stejskal who, along with his friend, is trying hard to change it, Reflex writes.

($1=19.233 crowns)